


Pepperdine University

by dearwhimsy



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-25
Updated: 2012-11-25
Packaged: 2017-11-19 11:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearwhimsy/pseuds/dearwhimsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Virginia Pott’s parents didn’t take it too well when she announced she’s dropping out of Stanford business school to become Tony Stark’s personal assistant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pepperdine University

Virginia Pott’s parents didn’t take it too well when she announced she’s dropping out of Stanford business school to become Tony Stark’s personal assistant. At first they refuse to believe her, laughing it off as prank; probably didn’t help that she’d forgotten the date and ended up telling them about it on April 1st. But slowly, when the minutes passed and she didn’t start laughing with them, reality set in.

Her father stared at her for eternities before looking away and never looking back. Her mother went quiet and warned her that Tony Stark was never going to make an honest woman out of her. Virginia just closed her eyes and prayed for strength and prayed for Tony Stark to be worth it all (he was worth it in the end, more than worth it even if she had thought otherwise many times in the intervening years).

She tried to explain. In halting speech, she tried to explain Tony Stark and the way the world was changing and how she could make it for the better…

_As Tony Stark’s_ **secretary** _?_

Her father had cut in then, never once raising his gaze from his clenched hands in his lap and Virginia had swallowed hard and didn’t reach for him, for the warm hands which had tended to her wounds and helped her up when she fell.

She’d wanted him to look at her and promise believe her and tell her he and mom would still love her regardless because even if she was right, about her and about Tony Stark, she didn’t think she could do it alone. Virginia was strong, she’s had to be so learned to be but she was still breakable and her heart still tender.

(she’s less breakable these days and though her heart’s still tender, she’s learned that that pain can be a strength as well)

She’d swallowed hard and forced herself to say it out loud.

_Yes, as his secretary if that’s what it takes._

He left the room after that, leaving her choking on apologies she meant and didn’t really and the heavy certainty that he was right, while her mother tried to put the world back to rights.

The next day, she showed up at Tony Stark’s office with red eyes and a fake smile that lasted until Tony Stark pulled her into an empty conference room and locked the door and took her hands in his and thanked her for taking the job and promised her the any signing bonus that she wanted.

She’d looked down at their joined hands and closed her eyes and prayed for them because Tony Stark was going to save the world someday and Virginia was going to have to save him in the meantime and during.

Then she’d told him she wanted Louboutins because her current pair of heels weren’t sharp enough. He’d laughed and by the end of the day she was striding down hallways on a pair of shiny red stilettos and a sharp, genuine smile.

Over the next few years, she sacrificed four heels for worthy causes and collected dozens more and somehow found time between wrangling Tony and everyone else to start taking courses at the business school at Pepperdine University. Tony’s office soon boasted an extra diploma but which didn’t have his name on it.

(She let him use the original because to be honest, it was more her office than his)

When she and her father finally speak again, Virginia had become Pepper and she’s wearing Louboutins which cost more than he made in a month and she reached out and took his hands in hers and told him about how she was changing the world. He didn’t look her in the eyes once but that was okay because he’d been staring at their joined hands and she knew that he hadn’t needed to pray that things were would all work out.

They already had.


End file.
